Gallant's journey to NHL a lot of 'blood, sweat and tears'

Michael Fornabaio

Updated 12:12 am, Friday, April 11, 2014

UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- In 38 months since he joined the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Brett Gallant has played with 149 teammates, sticking up for over a third of the men who have ever worn that sweater. He's seen almost 30 of them move on to dress in an NHL game, 16 of them making their NHL debuts.

Many of those were draft picks, chosen at young ages for predestined greatness. Gallant wasn't one of them. He fought his way out of junior, to the ECHL for a year and a half, to a tryout with Bridgeport, to an AHL contract to an NHL deal in February 2013.

Now, 38 months later, he's an NHLer.

"It's unreal," said his dad, Mike Gallant, Tuesday night; he'd made a long drive from home in Prince Edward Island to see his son make his NHL debut. "It's something you can never take away."

Brett Gallant played six minutes for Bridgeport's parent club, the New York Islanders, against Ottawa at Nassau Coliseum. He put one shot on goal, he laid three hits, and he got into one fight and threw one right hand that sent the Coliseum into a frenzy.

If you watched the Sound Tigers any time over the past 38 months, you had a feeling that could happen.

"I think it's a culmination of putting it all on the line, showing up, being willing and embracing your opportunity," said Sound Tigers teammate Justin Johnson, another of the AHL's toughest players who has scrapped for his own chances.

"It comes down, to me, to three words, blood, sweat and tears. When Gally was 21, he was in a hotel room with his wife and his newborn son. He had to make it work."

To start

He had a chat at the red line at Nassau Coliseum with teammate Scott Mayfield, who jabbed that he had an NHL game on Gallant already. He chipped pucks off the glass and out of the zone with skills coach Bernie Cassell, a few more reps to work on his game.

And then Gallant had completed his first NHL morning skate Tuesday morning, eight hours away from his NHL debut, a long way from Summerside.

"I know he's ready to take this challenge," said Mayfield, who'd made his debut Sunday.

"He deserves it. Being in Bridgeport, he's done everything they've asked of him, more than everything. He works hard on and off the ice. He's a great guy in the locker room."

A scrum of nine or 10 reporters and cameramen swarmed Gallant's dressing-room stall, nine or 10 times what he may get as a Bridgeport Sound Tiger.

"He's a really good guy. He really deserves a chance up here," said Islanders goalie Anders Nilsson, Gallant's teammate the past three years.

"He's done a (heck) of a job in Bridgeport. He supports the guys. He backs up the guys -- he's one of the best tough guys I've ever played with. He really deserves to be here."

Sunday, Gallant fought for the 66th time as a Sound Tiger, more than anyone else. Monday, Gallant got word to get to the Island.

His first calls were to his father and mother at work.

"They were pretty excited," Gallant said. "My father started planning trips to Ottawa."

With that corrected, Mike and Patricia Gallant got in the car Monday night at about 8 and started driving from PEI. Hitting rain in Bangor, Maine, and traffic pretty much everywhere after that, they pulled into Uniondale at about 9:30 a.m.

"Worth the trip," Mike Gallant said.

Brett Gallant is the middle of three boys, all three of whom have played professionally. Bradley, the oldest, was there Tuesday; Alex, the youngest, is with the Columbus Cottonmouths and playing for a Southern Professional Hockey League championship.

"When they were 15, 16, they were probably about 100 pounds," Mike Gallant said. "They got some meat on their bones. They're competitive. And they really hate to fail."

All three wound up about 6 feet tall. Brett is listed at 190 pounds. But he has been more than willing to give height and weight and reach to players like Joel Rechlicz (6-4, 230), Patrick Wellar (6-3, 231), Zack Stortini (6-4, 232), current teammate Johnson (6-1, 220) when Johnson was with Manchester.

Ottawa left winger Matt Kassian goes 6-4, 240.

On the button

Standing between former Bridgeport teammates Ryan Strome and John Persson, Gallant appeared to look over the ice a few times during the two national anthems. There were a few nerves, he said, until he first hopped over the boards with the fourth line.

"I got hit; I gave a hit. I felt good," Gallant said. "From then on, I was ready to go."

After the Islanders were called for icing on his second shift, he found himself opposite Senators captain Jason Spezza's dangerous line. Gallant chipped out of the defensive zone to set up a two-on-one for his linemates.

The third shift would've been an offensive-zone faceoff. He and Kassian dropped their gloves when they thought the puck had been dropped. It hadn't. The linesmen jumped in, and both received minor penalties.

Two minutes later, they left the penalty box, dropped the gloves again, circled each other, engaged. Kassian threw one right hand, which Gallant absorbed. Gallant threw one right hand. Kassian hit the ice.

("Just part of the game," was about all Gallant would say.)

("Right on the button," former Islander Butch Goring said, commenting over the replay on MSG+.)

Five minutes of playing time later, Gallant left the box to a roar.

Up the ladder

Tuesday night, every Ottawa player and 16 of 19 Islanders had been drafted; their slots averaged out to a high third-rounder. Two other Islanders signed NHL contracts as amateur free agents.

Gallant was unique, going from major junior to a lower level, working on his game, turning pro in the ECHL for two years and finally reaching Bridgeport on a tryout on Feb. 10, 2011.

Nine days later was his first of six AHL fights against Rechlicz.

Punching "Gallant Rechlicz" into YouTube is a bit like typing in "Affirmed Alydar," a series of incredible competitions.

That first one, just after Rechlicz scored his first AHL goal for Hershey: They fought right off the faceoff, and once they started, neither one stopped throwing punches for about a minute, Rechlicz the left, Gallant the right, going from center ice into the Bridgeport zone.

Bridgeport won the next night at home to end an 11-game winless streak. Gallant earned an AHL contract for 2011-12. He worked relentlessly on his game. He signed an NHL contract the year after that. He kept working.